When Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot targeted Arab businesses in 2021 and 2022

Looking back at why Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s racism against Arab American business owners disqualifies her from running for re-election and why Arab American voters should support other candidates running for mayor like Dr. Willie Wilson, Paul Vallas, Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, Roderick Sawyer, Ja’Mal Green or Kam Buckner among a few that have outreached to Arab Americans for support. Several Arab American activists, who benefit from Mayor Lightfoot’s administration, have launched a campaign to counter the facts and excuse Lightfoot’s racism. Arab Americans should vote against Lightfoot and not allow her to get away with her discriminatory policies

By Ray Hanania

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has a history of discriminating against Arab Americans and now that she is running for re-election, she has co-opted several Arab activists who seek to sell themselves out for power in an effort to get the Arab American community in Chicago to forget about what she did.

This week, Mayor Lightfoot began a campaign to recruit Arab Americans to support her re-election.

It’s amazing that she would do this considering that she has been the second most anti-Arab mayor Chicago has ever had since the racist administration of former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

When Emanuel was first elected mayor, one of his first actions was to end the annual Arab Festival called “Arabesque.” He then excluded Arab Americans from his outreach to the Muslim community, and he reorganized the Chicago Human Relations Council to terminate the Advisory Commission on Arab Affairs.

Citgo Gas Station co-owner Ahmad Mohsin speaks to the media at press conference Thursday May 5 at the Citgo gas station closed by Mayor Lightfoot for an unrelated street gang crime at 3759 W. Chicago Ave in Chicago.

Lightfoot, in running for mayor, promoted herself as someone who would be most sensitive to diversity and inclusion, and outreached to some Arab Americans to support her candidacy for mayor after Emanuel retired from office in 2019. Lightfoot noted that she was a Lesbian, African American, a woman, and sympathized with the challenges facing other minorities.

But less than two years into her administration, Lightfoot decided to use Arab Americans as scapegoats to deflect from her failure to confront rising gun and street gang violence. Lightfoot shut down more than 50 Arab American owned gas stations, most of which operated on a 24-hour basis in Chicago’s central minority region, and implied that by shutting the 24-hour stores (almost everyone was Arab and there were a few Pakistani owned stores) that this would help curb the violence.

Chicago Mayoral candidate Dr. Willie Wilson promised to ensure that Arabs and Muslims will be included in his administration during a visit he made to celebrate the Eid Al Adha with Chicagoland's Muslim community July 9, 2022 — Chicago Mayoral candidate Dr. Willie Wilson promised to ensure that Arabs and Muslims will be included in his administration during a visit he made to celebrate the Eid Al Adha with Chicagoland’s Muslim community July 9, 2022

Her theory was basically that when gang bangers committed crimes, they often fled to the late night opened gas stations and stores, owned by Arabs, and pretended to be out on the street merely to buy food or get gasoline. It was estimated that only about 35 percent of the targeted stores had witnessed street gang violence on their properties (such as on parking lots or on the sidewalks adjacent to their properties). While the remainder happened to see violence occur nearby.

Ironically, and in an act of racism, when violence occurred near a store, Lightfoot’s Police/Building Department Task Force only closed Arab-owned stores but never closed stores owned by African Americans, the LGBTQ community, Asians or Hispanics. Those stores remained open but Arab stores were closed, many for as long as two and three months.

Jesus Garcia, Cook County Commissioner, candidate for Mayor in 2019

In September 2021, the store owners asked the American Arab Chamber of Commerce to help them confront Mayor Lightfoot’s racist policies and the often racist attitudes reflected int he language of Building Department inspectors who referred to them as “Arab Store Owners” when ordering the stores closed.

The stores were closed on the false premise that they were in violation of city Building Codes, but most of the violations involved minor issues that did not jeopardize the life or safety of consumers, motorists or customers from the local community. When store owners would correct the problems in the citations, new citations, that had not been noted in prior inspections, were given as new excuses to keep the stores closed.

One of the first officials to speak out against this racism was Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez who denounced the mayor;’s actions and expressed solidarity with the Arab American business owners. Other elected officials including Alderwoman Silvana Tabares and Alderman Gil Villegas also expressed concerns.

This practice continued until the American Arab Chamber of Commerce and its president Hassan Nijem and its board members organized several press conferences to shine a light on the practices. In the wake of the avalanche of media coverage, Lightfoot backed down and ended the practices in October 2021. But in May 2022, hoping that the media would ignore the problem, Lightfoot ordered new targeted closures.

The American Arab Chamber of Commerce organized more press conferences and forced Lightfoot again to back down.

In each and every instance, Lightfoot refused to address the Arab business owners and instead worked with another rump business group in the hopes of distracting Arab Americans from the truth and to blur the issues in the hopes that the community would forget.

Here are News links from the Sept. 2021 press conference

Southwest News Newspaper Group Opinion: Attack Crime not Arabs Madam Mayor Click here to read column

DesPlaines Valley News/Regional News Click here to read

Suburban Chicagoland Op-Ed column Sept. 22, 2021 Click to read the column

Chicago Tribune story Sept. 17, 2021 Click to read story

Texas News Today Story Sept. 17, 2021 Click to read story

Pantagraph Illinois Newspaper, Sept. 17, 2021 Click to Read story

Arab News Newspaper story Sept. 14, 2021 Click to read story

Chicago Sun-Times Story Sept. 13, 2021 Click to read story

FOX 32 TV News Chicago Story Sept. 13, 2021 Click to read story and view video

FOX TV News National Sept. 13, 2021 Click to read story and view video

Patch News Online, Sept. 12, 2021 Click to read story

Suburban Chicagoland online news Sept. 8, 2021 Click to read story

US News Wire Service Sept. 1, 2021 Click to read story

Here are News links from the May 2022 press conference

WLS ABC TV CLICK TO VIEW

WBBM CBS TV CLICK TO VIEW

Chicago Sun-Times. CLICK TO READ

The Blaze. CLICK TO READ

FOX TV News CLICK TO VIEW

WataugaNews CLICK TO VIEW

The Arab Daily News CLICK TO VIEW

(Ray Hanania is an award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter. A political analyst and CEO of Urban Strategies Group, Hanania’s opinion columns on mainstream issues are published in the Southwest News Newspaper Group in the Des Plaines Valley News, Southwest News-Herald, The Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers. His Middle East columns are published in the Arab News. For more information on Ray Hanania visit www.Hanania.com or email him at [email protected].)

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rayhanania

Op-Ed writer, author, radio host, podcaster at The Arab Daily News

Ray Hanania is an award-winning columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.

His award winning columns can be found at www.HANANIA.COM Subscribe FREE today

Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.

Email Ray Hanania at [email protected].

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